‘Roofman’ Review

In ‘Roofman’, Derek Cianfrance’s first directorial feature film in almost a decade, Channing Tatum shows off his range, portraying a character through crime, comedy, romance, and heartbreaking family drama. With strong performances and a compelling story, ‘Roofman’ is only hampered by its frustrating protagonist, who constantly makes bad choices that result in as many eye rolls as plot developments.

Based on a true story, ‘Roofman’ follows Jeffrey Manchester (Channing Tatum), a former soldier who, after disappointing his daughter with an underwhelming gift on her birthday, decides to apply his observational skills to a life of crime, targeting McDonald’s restaurants and dropping in through roofs after hours to commit robberies. Eventually arrested and sentenced to decades behind bars, Manchester escapes and takes refuge in a Toys ‘R’ Us, where he sets up a living area in the ceiling. Missing his children, Manchester takes on the false identity of John Zorn and begins a romantic relationship with Leigh Wainscott (Kirsten Dunst), a store employee and single mom to two young daughters. As the relationship grows, Manchester is torn between staying behind, nurturing the love of this replacement family, and fleeing the country to avoid capture and further prison time.

As a setting, Toys ‘R’ Us takes on a symbolic significance, mirroring two of the protagonist’s most infuriating qualities – his childlike impulsiveness and his rampant consumerism. Manchester just can’t help himself, whether it’s robbing McDonald’s, living in a toy store, or just driving too fast, he pushes his way into trouble again and again. Combined with his slavish devotion to the myth of consumerism – that all of his problems in life can be solved if he just buys enough things – makes Manchester a hard-to-root-for protagonist. It’s telling that even as he successfully evades the police and commits more robberies, Manchester’s friend Steve (LaKeith Stanfield) remains confident that all of these plans will blow up because Manchester is just that dumb.

Derek Cianfrance’s return to feature direction demonstrates a restrained skill and style. While Manchester’s heists themselves aren’t the most cinematically interesting, Cianfrance stages and blocks scenes both action packed and dramatic to enhance the small moments and provide visual dynamism. Accompanied by Christopher Bear’s lovely score, Cianfrance is patient and careful, never hesitating to let a shot linger, following a character as they struggle with their emotions.

The great strength of the film is its acting, with Channing Tatum demonstrating his skill playing a complex character. Tatum plays Manchester as a frustrating and frustrated man child, who wants so desperately to earn the love of his family, any family, but unable to get out of his own way. He is paired with Kirsten Dunst, who gives a quiet, wonderful performance as a churchgoing store employee who loves her daughters dearly even as they bristle in the void left by her divorce. Together, Tatum and Dunst delivers scenes of a blossoming romance with all of the tenderness and awkwardness of two normal people yearning for connection but skeptical of any newcomers.

The rest of the cast is filled with small but memorable supporting turns, whether that’s Peter Dinklage bringing fun douchebag energy to his role as Toys ‘R’ Us manager, LaKeith Stanfield as the wry and confident friend who has seen too much of Manchester to believe in him at all, or Ben Mendolsohn and Uzo Aduba as the married heads of Dunst’s church, singing their way through every service but never being treated as a joke. Together, these characters all create a community from which it makes sense that Tatum’s Manchester would be reluctant to flee.

While ‘Roofman’ offers nothing groundbreaking, Derek Cianfrance’s welcome return to feature film is a well told, but sometimes maddening, true crime romance of a man smart enough to commit robberies and escape prison, but not smart enough to get away with it. At least not for long.

Roofman
Rated R for language, nudity and brief sexuality.
Running Time: 2 hours and 6 minutes

Director Derek Cianfrance
Writers Derek Cianfrance, Kirt Gunn
Stars Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, Ben Mendolsohn, LaKeith Stanfield, Juno Temple, Melanie Diaz, Uzo Aduba, Lily Collias, Jimmy O. Yang, Peter Dinklage
Rating R
Running Time 126 Minutes
Genres Dark Comedy, Crime, Drama